Mirjam Schöning joined the LEGO Foundation in October 2013. The LEGO Foundation seeks to empower children to become creative, engaged and life-long learners and increase the awareness of the transformative power of play in learning. Mirjam heads one of the three programmes of the Foundation, focusing on early childhood development and informal learning. She is a member of the Foundation’s leadership team.

Previously, Mirjam was heading the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and was a member of the senior leadership team at the World Economic Forum. Having joined the Foundation at its inception in 2000, she was one of the early pioneers in the field of supporting social entrepreneurship. The Foundation´s “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” selection process and media partnerships raised the awareness and the support for leading social entrepreneurs around the world.

Mirjam holds an MBA from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. She graduated with a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Previously, she was a consultant at Bain & Company. She analyzed the social sector lending strategies in Latin America for the World Bank, and worked on a regional centralization strategy for Shell in Scandinavia.